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RADIUS

RADIUS. CS 772/872. Access management in an Enterprise using RADIUS.

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RADIUS

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  1. RADIUS CS 772/872

  2. Access management in an Enterprise using RADIUS • Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) is a networking protocol that provides centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) management for computers to connect and use a network service. RADIUS was developed by Livingston Enterprises, Inc., in 1991 as an access server authentication and accounting protocol and later brought into the IETF standards.

  3. Access management in an Enterprise using RADIUS

  4. Because of the broad support and the ubiquitous nature of the RADIUS protocol it is often used by ISPs and enterprises to manage access to the Internet or internal networks, wireless networks, and integrated e-mail services. These networks may incorporate modems, DSL, access points, VPNs, network ports, web servers, etc.[2]

  5. RADIUS is a client/server protocol that runs in the application layer, using UDP as transport. The Remote Access Server, the Virtual Private Network server, the Network switch with port-based authentication, and the Network Access Server, are all gateways that control access to the network, and all have a RADIUS client component that communicates with the RADIUS server. The RADIUS server is usually a background process running on a UNIX or Windows NT machine.[3]

  6. RADIUS serves three functions: • to authenticate users or devices before granting them access to a network, • to authorize those users or devices for certain network services and • to account for usage of those services.

  7. Authentication and Authorization • The user or machine sends a request to a Network Access Server (NAS) to gain access to a particular network resource using access credentials. • The credentials are passed to the NAS device via the link-layer protocol - for example, Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) in the case of many dialup or DSL providers or posted in a HTTPS secure web form. • In turn, the NAS sends a RADIUS Access Request message to the RADIUS server, requesting authorization to grant access via the RADIUS protocol.[4]

  8. RADIUS Authentication and Authorization Flow

  9. This request includes access credentials, typically in the form of username and password or security certificate provided by the user. Additionally, the request may contain other information which the NAS knows about the user, such as its network address or phone number, and information regarding the user's physical point of attachment to the NAS. • The RADIUS server checks that the information is correct using authentication schemes like PAP, CHAP or EAP. The user's proof of identification is verified, along with, optionally, other information related to the request, such as the user's network address or phone number, account status and specific network service access privileges. Historically, RADIUS servers checked the user's information against a locally stored flat file database. Modern RADIUS servers can do this, or can refer to external sources - commonly SQL, Kerberos, LDAP, or Active Directory servers - to verify the user's credentials.

  10. The RADIUS server then returns one of three responses to the NAS : 1) Access Reject, 2) Access Challenge or 3) Access Accept. • Access Reject - The user is unconditionally denied access to all requested network resources. Reasons may include failure to provide proof of identification or an unknown or inactive user account. • Access Challenge - Requests additional information from the user such as a secondary password, PIN, token or card. Access Challenge is also used in more complex authentication dialogs where a secure tunnel is established between the user machine and the Radius Server in a way that the access credentials are hidden from the NAS. • Access Accept - The user is granted access. Once the user is authenticated, the RADIUS server will often check that the user is authorised to use the network service requested. A given user may be allowed to use a company's wireless network, but not its VPN service, for example. Again, this information may be stored locally on the RADIUS server, or may be looked up in an external source like LDAP or Active Directory.

  11. Accounting • When network access is granted to the user by the NAS, an Accounting Start (a RADIUS Accounting Request packet containing a Acct-Status-Type attribute with the value "start") is sent by the NAS to the RADIUS server to signal the start of the user's network access. "Start" records typically contain the user's identification, network address, point of attachment and a unique session identifier.[5] • Periodically, Interim Update records (a RADIUS Accounting Request packet containing a Acct-Status-Type attribute with the value "interim-update") may be sent by the NAS to the RADIUS server, to update it on the status of an active session. "Interim" records typically convey the current session duration and information on current data usage. • Finally, when the user's network access is closed, the NAS issues a final Accounting Stop record (a RADIUS Accounting Request packet containing a Acct-Status-Type attribute with the value "stop") to the RADIUS server, providing information on the final usage in terms of time, packets transferred, data transferred, reason for disconnect and other information related to the user's network access. • Typically, the client sends Accounting-Request packet until it receives a Accounting-Response acknowledgement, using some retry interval. • The primary purpose of this data is that the user can be billed accordingly; the data is also commonly used for statistical purposes and for general network monitoring.

  12. RADIUS Accounting Flow

  13. Roaming • RADIUS is commonly used to facilitate roaming between ISPs, for example: • by companies which provide a single global set of credentials that are usable on many public networks; • by independent, but collaborating, institutions issuing their own credentials to their own users, that allow a visitor from one to another to be authenticated by their home institution, such as in Eduroam. • RADIUS facilitates this by the use of realms, which identify where the RADIUS server should forward the AAA requests for processing.

  14. Roaming using a proxy RADIUS AAA server. Roaming using a proxy RADIUS AAA server.

  15. Realms • A realm is commonly appended to a user's user name and delimited with an '@' sign, resembling an email address domain name. This is known as postfix notation for the realm. Another common usage is prefix notation, which involves prepending the realm to the username and using '\' as a delimiter. Modern RADIUS servers allow any character to be used as a realm delimiter, although in practice '@' and '\' are usually used. • Realms can also be compounded using both prefix and postfix notation, to allow for complicated roaming scenarios; for example, somedomain.com\username@anotherdomain.com could be a valid username with two realms. • Although realms often resemble email domains, it is important to note that realms are in fact arbitrary text and need not contain real domain names.

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